Stinque Recipe Challenge
Making lasagna with homemade bolognese – my recipe:
1/8 stick butter
1/8 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
Half tablespoon each basil, mint (both fresh if available), red pepper flakes – 1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Half lb. Beef – finest kind/grind; ½ lb. Pork – finest kind/grind
6-8 oz. of thick-cut bacon, chopped
1 can tomato paste
3/4 cup red wine
1 ½ cups beef stock
1.5 cups ricotta
8 oz. small curd cottage cheese
one or two egg yolks
grated parmesan for the top (if you want)
1/4 cup cream (optional)
1) brown meat and set aside; heat fat in heavy frying pan on medium, cook garlic slowly until it just changes color, add onion, carrot, celery, and spices, cook until onion is just translucent;
2) raise heat, add bacon and cook for 2 more minutes;
3) deglaze with red wine, cook for 1 minute – add beef stock, stir, then add tomato paste;
4) cover and cook on lowest heat, adding stock and wine if the sauce becomes too dry – from 2-3 hours, skim fat as necessary;
5) finish with cream (optional) – cook 2-3 minutes until sauce sets;
6) serve over fresh pasta, or anything else you wish.
This is a compilation of a bunch of recipes I used to use. I can’t emphasize the importance of low and slow. Usually I wind up putting about 3/4 of a bottle of wine in with extra stock (and 1/4 of the bottle goes into me). I use the grating blade in the food processor for the vegetables – they’ll dissolve anyway.
This is the bolognese done:
OK – let’s assemble this bitch;
Olive oil in the bottom of the Pyrex, then a bottom layer of pasta (ordinarily I’d make the pasta, but sort of tired so I used Fairway fresh pasta – they sell sheets!):
The cheese is 16 ounces of ricotta, a nice dollop of small curd cottage cheese, and an egg yolk …
So pasta, meat, pasta, cheese, pasta, meat, pasta, cheese … layer it up, then put leftover cheese, any leftover bolognese, and a thick layer of shredded mozarella, and parsley and basil on the top – used dry spices this time b/c I forgot to get fresh at the grocery store;
And it goes into the oven for an hour @ 375 and, voila, the result appears in the first photo. Serve it with a nice tomato/basil sauce, because you don’t want it to be dry.
If you’re a fan of bad movies, as I am, watch Vanishing on 7th Street – cost 10 mil and made less than 100k.
@blogenfreude:
A podcast I listen to from time to time that deconstructs horrible movies:
http://www.earwolf.com/show/how-did-this-get-made/
@ManchuCandidate: Kevin Smith’s Hollywood Babble On podcast similarly has “Movies that Will Suck” segment.
@ManchuCandidate: And the single best movie review I’ve ever read is here.
May I be the first to shove my face in that bubbling yumminess?
I’ve recently brought myself back to Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking. It was a different world. Check out how to boil an egg.
My above comment does not extend to the flesh of sentient animals tortured to death.
BREAKING HARD: Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees died. Who’s third?
@SanFranLefty: Am I a bad person for thinking Rupert Holmes?
@SanFranLefty: Or, if you want genre-appropriate, there are still four Village People left.
@SanFranLefty: For that matter, I’ve never forgiven John Williams for the disco version of Star Wars that came with the original soundtrack album.
CORRECTION AFTER BLOWING DUST OFF VINYL:
Close Encounters. I think it was because someone else got to Disco Star Wars first.
@nojo: No. He’s a talentless hacktastic crumpy dumpy plagiaristic fuck-wad.
@Benedick: I don’t think I would have quite used those words at the time. But it was the moment when everybody around me turned into airheads.
Historical context: Imagine everybody in your life holding toga parties with “Pina Colada” on the stereo. Welcome to College Hell.
@nojo: Thanks for the fucking ear worm. I can never decide whether “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” or Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle” is the worse ’70s earworm. Horrifying as it is, I know all the words to both songs. And have them on iTunes rotation.
Of course, I don’t think The Simpsons has appropriated “Escape” yet, so it doesn’t have the cool points of “Cat’s in the Cradle.”
@SanFranLefty: It’s an easy parody, but I have a soft spot for Cat’s in the Cradle. Pina Colada is unforgivable.
But hey, since you’re already fucked: Dust in the winnnnnnnnnnd…
Paul’s back… and weirder… yikes.
@ManchuCandidate: I wanna know which rich bastard could afford a remote-control TV in 1967.
Don driving a Jag is like a shotgun on the mantle in the first act.
@nojo:
I used to drive my dad crazy with his remote TV (early 70s) as a toddler. Since IR remotes weren’y around, they were sound activated, I figured out how to change channels by throwing down coins. It usually did and then my dad would lose his mind.
@ManchuCandidate: I thought they were radio. But then, we never had one.
Friends did. I loved the chunk-chunk-chunk as primitive remotes turned mechanical dials. Mechanical dials with plastic knobs: There was a point in the life of all TVs when you kept pliers handy to change the channel.
@nojo:
Zenith ones were sound.
Yup. My friends had a BW TV in university (early 90s) with a pair of vice grips to control the knobs. That was till one day one of my friends went insane and threw the TV off the balcony.
@Benedick: you are always welcome here – lasagna is easy and fun.
Tomorrow’s Outrage Tonight:
Oceanside cop shoots and kills a drunk guy wielding a broomstick in broad daylight. One bullet and down.
Oh. Right. Drunk guy was black.
@nojo: afraid to look …
@mellbell: Meanwhile, I’ve just been watching a couple of X-Files episodes featuring Michael McKean. Nobody cross me, if you know what’s good for you.
@nojo: Still waiting for the outrage…
@ManchuCandidate: The Clicker!
NOJO • A Kind of Hash @nojo: Never been to a big-league game, so saw the Yankees with friends last night. Grand slam was…
NOJO • A Kind of Hash @¡Andrew!: Not yet, but I’m sure I can borrow one from a neighbor on the…
¡ANDREW! • A Kind of Hash @nojo: Oh wow! Congratulations on the move. Hope it's going well. I assume that you now have a…
MANCHUCANDIDATE • A Kind of Hash For the Ex-Mo contingent... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1W0pDpDBqE
NOJO • A Kind of Hash @¡Andrew!: Never made it, and too late now — I’ve been in Brooklyn since May.
¡ANDREW! • A Kind of Hash @nojo: So, have you dined at Casa Bonita yet? It seems to be the primary cause of mass insanity in…
¡ANDREW! • A Kind of Hash I hope Taylor Swift figured out a way to unleash her flying monkeys/army of lawyers against Tr666p…
MANCHUCANDIDATE • A Kind of Hash Team Kamala/Walz/Swifty
NOJO • A Kind of Hash Nothing in my life goes to waste.
FLYINGCHAINSAW • Harris-Kelly ’24 HARRIS QUOTES TOWER OF POWER IN DEBATE: TURN THE PAGE !